Bhutan's Progress with Global Partnerships
When we talk about finding global partnership for Bhutan, we are speaking of Bhutan's ability to communicate globally. Do the citizens of Bhutan have access to the world? Also, included is the employment rate of citizens in Bhutan. Within Bhutan they are experiencing amazing technological, communicative, and informational advances! They are well on their way to achieving their goals in establishing a Global Partnership. However, there is a small hick-op when it comes to unemployment, because currently the rate of unemployment of youth is on the rise. Since 2000 the unemployment rate for youth has gone from 2.6% to over 12%! There is no current solution proposed for this problem by Bhutanese government. My personal solution to the problem involves gaining helping these youth gain more education so they can become employed. If they were able to push higher education as a national goal, they would see their unemployment rates go down. But how do you change that? Its simple, my solution calls for government student loans for those seeking higher education. Right now, in Bhutan, the outlook on higher education is weak. That is because many families do not consider it something of worth, but if you began to teach them the gains of higher education in high school, middle school, and elementary school, along with providing a way for them to gain that education, I am sure they would take hold. That education would propel them into the work force, either within the borders on Bhutan, or elsewhere. The loan system would reflect the system we have here in the United States, with low income families receiving greater opportunities to accept loans. It would most likely take around 3-4 years to really make a larger effect, but for their goals it would suffice. |
Bhutan's Progress with Environmental Sustainability
Bhutan has a lot of bragging room when it comes to their environmental sustainability. They are ranked in fourth place among all Asian nations in their race towards environmental sustainability. Currently Bhutan maintains 72.5% of their land as healthy forest, and 29% is maintained as protected land. They are well on their way to achieve their environmental sustainability goals by 2015. They can actually be called early achievers in that regard. As for CO2 emissions, Bhutan maintains a negative CO2 output, per capita! Bhutan has lowered the proportion of people without sustainable drinking water from 55% in 1990 to less than 20% in 2007! They are doing extremely well. Although, just because they are doing so well environmentally does not mean that they do not have problems. Some major problems with having such a huge forest is that there is a lot of illegal deforestation and logging that occurs. Because the forest is so large and there are so many small communities, there is not a lot they can do to regulate these felonies. They are poorer and use the wood for fires and such in order to live. So what can be done? My solution requires a better system for lower class citizens. They need some type of compensation and education for accepting and living within the environmental laws. My solution calls for the development of a new government agency, in charge of raising funds to give to low-income families that do not break environmental laws. Along with the financial compensation the new government agency would be in charge of educating Bhutanese citizens on the importance of the environment. The environmental branch would be a permanent part of the Bhutanese government, helping to prevent the unlawful logging and use of their forests. |
Information provided by: http://www2.undp.org.bt/